Phoebe works to investigate how the endangered fish can thrive.
The Little Colorado River has a brilliant turquoise-blue color
due to the calcium carbonate minerals suspended in the water.
Travertine, a chalky limestone that settles out of the water
and coats the riverbed with a white hue, adds to the river’s
amazing color. The Little Colorado River can be divided
into the upper and lower reaches, with the boundary between the
two marked by a series of travertine waterfalls. The river is
one of the last remaining places where you can find the
endangered humpback chub. Science Moab talked with Phoebe
Brown, a river guide and researcher who as an undergraduate was
part of a larger study looking at the growth rates of the
humpback chub.
Zimbabwe declared a state of disaster Wednesday over a
devastating drought that’s sweeping across much of southern
Africa, with the country’s president saying it needs $2 billion
for humanitarian assistance. The declaration was widely
expected following similar actions by neighboring Zambia and
Malawi, where drought linked to the El Nino weather phenomenon
has scorched crops, leaving millions of people in need of food
assistance. … [President Emmerson Mnangagwa] appealed to
United Nations agencies, local businesses and faith
organizations to contribute towards humanitarian
assistance. El Nino, a naturally occurring climatic
phenomenon that warms parts of the Pacific Ocean every two to
seven years, has varied effects on the world’s weather. In
southern Africa, it typically causes below-average rainfall,
but this year has seen the worst drought in decades.
Canals in California may soon feature a new look — solar panel
canopies, designed to stop evaporation and soak up the sun’s
rays, created under a new project funded with help from the
federal government to boost green energy
infrastructure. Governor Gavin Newsom joined staff from
the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on Thursday to highlight a new
“solar-over-canal” project along one of the state’s primary
aqueducts. The pilot project proposes placing a solar canopy to
“float” over a major waterway as a source of renewable energy
that can also prevent loss of precious water through
evaporation. Adam Nickels, Deputy Regional Director at the
Bureau of Reclamation, said that the Biden Inflation Reduction
Act helped make it possible to pick a portion of the
Delta-Mendota Canal for placement of a solar panel in Merced
County.
For most Northern Nevadans and Californians, Lake Tahoe is more
than a distinctive spot on the map. Whether you only go a few
times a year or every single weekend, it always feels like your
refuge. You never take it for granted. Neither do the
scientists, planners, biologists, volunteers, lawmakers and
engineers who work to protect the lake from environmental
threats. In fact, the call to protect Lake Tahoe has echoed
across America in support of one of the most comprehensive and
successful conservation programs in the nation. Since public
and private partners established the Lake Tahoe Environmental
Improvement Program in 1997, we have completed more than 800
major restoration projects to protect one of our country’s most
treasured landscapes. -Written by Julie Regan, executive director of the
Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.
Water access in California has seen growing scrutiny as the
climate shifts from more extreme dry to wet swings. This
results in increasing year-to-year uncertainty for both
commercial and residential water availability. One area getting
more attention from an ethical and practical application is the
system of water rights, which first took shape in the late
1800s.
Yesterday, Gov. Gavin Newsom surveyed the Sierra snowpack and
outlined a new state water plan focused on climate change.
Scott and KQED climate reporter Ezra David Romero are joined by
California’s former top water regulator Felicia Marcus. As
the state’s top water czar, she navigated severe droughts,
balancing demands for scare water by cities, farms, businesses
and homeowners.
Water is a crucial topic in the American Southwest, as
continued drought and cuts to Colorado River water allocations
make more urgent the policy decisions on the future of water in
the region. Gaps in water policies have historically left
tribal communities with limited access to clean water and
infrastructure, a situation that Cora Tso is working to
correct. Tso, a new senior research fellow with the Kyl Center
for Water Policy at Arizona State University’s Morrison
Institute, is particularly well-suited to address tribal water
policy issues as both a lawyer specializing in Indian and water
law and an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation. She aims to
share her expertise with others, both through an assessment
tool she is creating and an upcoming free webinar on tribal
water issues April 9 that is open to the public…. Tso
was recently recognized as a Colorado River Water
Leader by the Water Education Foundation
and has strong ambitions as she continues in her career.
The Foundation’s Bay-Delta Tour
in May has already sold out but you can still join the
waitlist. Don’t miss out on the remaining opportunities
this spring and summer to visit important regions in the
state’s water story firsthand and engage directly with
water experts in California and from across the world.
Our Central Valley Tour, April
24-26, is nearing capacity! Only a few seats
remain on the bus for the tour that travels the length of
the San Joaquin Valley to explore the challenges of sustaining
one of the nation’s most productive agricultural regions.
Participants will visit farms and some of the state’s major
infrastructure, such as Friant Dam and San Luis Reservoir, as
well as the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, a major
wintering ground and migratory stopover point for large
concentrations of waterfowl and shorebirds. Register here before
tickets are gone!
California’s water resources look promising thanks to a string
of cold, wet storms since January, but the state’s leaders are
eyeing how significant the payout from those storms will be for
future years. State officials and experts from the University
of California, Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Laboratory say
the Golden State’s water and snow outlook is looking good this
spring, despite a dry start to the water year. The milestone
snowpack survey of the year, conducted Tuesday at Phillips
Station in El Dorado County, found a snowpack measuring 64
inches and a snow water equivalent — water contained in the
snowpack — of 27.5 inches. … All state watersheds
have significantly improved in water storage since Feb. 20,
with all sitting at 90% or higher. The State Water Project also
increased its forecast allocation of water supplies to 30%.
Journalist and author Stephen Robert Miller grew up in Tucson.
And now, he’s written a book taking a different look at his
childhood home. In “Over the Seawall,” Miller investigates how
lofty attempts to control nature and protect ourselves from
climate change often backfire — and how vulnerable people are
the most affected by it. It’s about unintended consequences and
good — and sometimes bad — intentions. And, in Arizona, it’s
about water – and our often futile attempts to get more of it
in our ever-growing metropolises. … I focused a lot on
agriculture and, obviously, you know, as everyone kind of does
and you start writing about climate change and especially
Arizona, because ag uses so much of the water, right about
three-quarters of the whole system.
The Biden-Harris administration is redoubling its efforts to
improve cybersecurity for the nation’s water systems. In March,
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the White
House issued a dire warning to state governors alerting them of
the need to protect water and wastewater systems from ongoing
cybersecurity threats and requested that the states provide
plans to decrease the risk of attacks on water and wastewater
systems in their state. … While the letter focused on
the national need for investment in water infrastructure,
California’s water systems are in particularly dire need for
upgrades. The EPA has previously estimated that California
needs about $51 billion in improvements to its water
infrastructure.
With California snowpack and reservoirs at above-average levels
following two wet winters, Gov. Gavin Newsom stood on a snowy
field near Lake Tahoe on Tuesday and urged the state to do much
more to make its water supplies resilient to the extreme
droughts and flooding that come with climate change. … The
governor presented a new water plan that lays out priorities
for changing how the state captures, stores and moves water,
including efforts to replenish groundwater, recycle wastewater
and restore the natural ecosystems of watersheds. Newsom said
his administration is focusing on infrastructure projects such
as building the Sites Reservoir — the first new major reservoir
in decades — and he vowed to move ahead with the proposed Delta
Conveyance Project.
Fog is central to life in California. … But climate
change is going to disrupt this quintessentially Californian
weather experience. We asked Todd Dawson, a scientist who has
long studied the relationship between fog and redwoods, to
divine the future of fog for us. Why does fog occur in
California, and why is it so important to the state’s
ecosystems? … Fog also provides an enormous, critical
water subsidy that sustains many coastal systems. Our coastal
fog has a high water content, so when it strikes surfaces such
as redwoods and grasses, it drips into the ecosystem. It
represents anywhere from 30–40% of all the water coastal
redwoods get each year.
Thirteen early to mid-career water professionals from across
the West have been chosen to participate in the Water Education
Foundation’s 2024 Colorado River
Water Leaders cohort. Like our California Water
Leaders program, the Colorado River Water
Leaders cohort includes engineers, lawyers, resource
specialists, scientists and others working for
public, private and nongovernmental organizations
from across the river’s basin in the United States and
Mexico. The 2024 cohort roster can be found
here. The Water Leader programs, led by
Foundation Executive Director Jenn Bowles, deepen
knowledge of water issues, enhance individual leadership skills
and prepare participants to take an active, cooperative
approach to decision-making about water resource issues.
Leading experts and top policymakers serve as mentors to
cohort members.
Attorney General Kris Mayes told La Paz County residents she’s
considering a lawsuit to stop corporate farms from overpumping
groundwater there and in Cochise County. Her investigators are
seeking examples of harm such as dry wells, cracked foundations
and dust on which to build a possible case using the state’s
nuisance laws, she said Thursday.
An elected member of a Ventura County water board has pleaded
guilty to a felony charge of stealing water for his Oxnard
farm. Daniel Naumann, 66, admitted to one count of grand theft
of water, Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko said
in a Friday news release. As part of his plea agreement,
five other felony charges will be dropped, the Ventura
County Star reports. Naumann,
a Camarillo resident who is owner and operator of
Naumann Family Farms, was an elected board member of the United
Water Conservation District and an alternate board member of
the Fox Canyon Groundwater Management Agency. … Despite
those roles, Naumann took nearly $30,000 in water between 2019
and 2021 using “diversion bypasses [that] were installed on two
commercial water pumps that irrigated Naumann’s crops,” the
release stated.
On the heels of two wet winters, it’s easy to forget how close
some parts of California came to running out of water a few
short years ago. But this climate amnesia will not help us
prepare for the next inevitable drought. … the water board is
about to trample the hard-won work that’s been done so far by
allowing water utilities until 2035 or later to
implement meaningful reductions. … Because the water
board’s latest plan for implementing efficiency standards has
such an extended timeline, water will inevitably become even
more expensive, including for low-income households and
communities. -Written by Robert Hertzberg, a former speaker of
the Assembly and former majority leader of the state Senate;
and Assembly member Laura Friedman
(D-Glendale), running to replace Adam Schiff in the U.S.
House of Representatives.
The Water Education Foundation is
mourning the loss of its Board
President Mike Chrisman, the former California Natural
Resources Secretary whose family ties to the Foundation go back
to its founding in 1977.
Mr. Chrisman, of Visalia, died from complications of cancer
Tuesday, Oct. 11. He was 78.
“We are devastated to learn about Mike’s passing,” said Jenn
Bowles, the Foundation’s executive director. “He was a
wonderfully supportive board president who cared deeply about our
mission and was constantly offering to help. Among other things,
he served as a mentor to up-and-coming professionals in our
Water Leaders
program.”
With 25 years of experience working
on the Colorado River, Chuck Cullom is used to responding to
myriad challenges that arise on the vital lifeline that seven
states, more than two dozen tribes and the country of Mexico
depend on for water. But this summer problems on the
drought-stressed river are piling up at a dizzying pace:
Reservoirs plummeting to record low levels, whether Hoover Dam
and Glen Canyon Dam can continue to release water and produce
hydropower, unprecedented water cuts and predatory smallmouth
bass threatening native fish species in the Grand Canyon.
“Holy buckets, Batman!,” said Cullom, executive director of the
Upper Colorado River Commission. “I mean, it’s just on and on and
on.”
As water interests in the Colorado
River Basin prepare to negotiate a new set of operating
guidelines for the drought-stressed river, Amelia Flores wants
her Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) to be involved in the
discussion. And she wants CRIT seated at the negotiating table
with something invaluable to offer on a river facing steep cuts
in use: its surplus water.
CRIT, whose reservation lands in California and Arizona are
bisected by the Colorado River, has some of the most senior water
rights on the river. But a federal law enacted in the late 1700s,
decades before any southwestern state was established, prevents
most tribes from sending any of its water off its reservation.
The restrictions mean CRIT, which holds the rights to nearly a
quarter of the entire state of Arizona’s yearly allotment of
river water, is missing out on financial gain and the chance to
help its river partners.